


Pipe Down

by disillusionist9



Series: Choose Dare [32]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Friendship, Gen, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff Common Room, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-01
Packaged: 2018-08-12 10:03:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7930492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disillusionist9/pseuds/disillusionist9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble #32 of 100 | Disrupted from sleeping, Ernie runs into the Bloody Baron and helps him locate something he's lost</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pipe Down

"It's eerie enough at night around here, without your banging and moaning about, Baron. Do be a good lad and pipe down! You'll wake the entire dungeons!"

Ernie rubbed some sleep from his eyes, peeking out from the top of the the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row. No one else in his dorm heard the ruckus above and were quite vehemently against his idea of a nighttime stroll to see what the fuss was about.

One of the portraits was cowering from the figure of the Bloody Baron, though Ernie was positive that neither the portrait or ghost could do any significant damage to the other. That did not stop the Baron from clawing his insubstantial hands towards the neck of the flustered painted warlock.

Against his better judgement, Ernie pushed out of the tunnel, and set his stocking feet on the floor. The dungeons here were much warmer than the area by the Potions classroom and the Slytherin rooms, from the roaring fires in the kitchen and the distance from the Black Lake, but Ernie and many other Puffs wore dressing gowns to ward off the chill.

"M-Mister Baron?" He hated how his voice squeaked. Puberty was not being kind.

The ghost was on him in a flash; close enough that Ernie could feel the small hairs on his arms lift with goosebumps and to imagine the Baron's every exhale ruffling his fringe.

As a ghost of few words, the Baron stared at him, his eyes darting across the boy's face in search of a reason for his intrusion.

"Are you looking for something?" Ernie asked, desperate to say _something_ that might soothe the irritable spector.

With a slight twist of his head, the Baron bared his teeth and growled, shook his chains loud enough to force Ernie to cover his ears, but after a minute or so of posturing...he nodded sharply.

Relief washed over Ernie. Finding things was something he was good at. Warily, he started a game of twenty questions to assist the Slytherin ghost, eventually locating the portrait of a young man dozing in a landscape on the third floor. Ernie didn't linger as the Bloody Baron resumed his incessant disruption. As he ran back down to the dormitory, missing Filch by a corridor, Ernie fought to subdue the laughter bubbling up inside of him.

No one would believe what he was up to in the middle of the night.


End file.
